Biography

Philip Dennis Hobsbaum (1932-2005) was Professor of English Literature, 1985 to 1997.

Born in London, Hobsbaum moved to Yorkshire during the Second World War. He studied English at Downing College, Cambridge under FR Leavis and gained a PhD from the University of Sheffield in 1968.

Hobsbaum was a lecturer in English at Queen's University in 1962 before coming to Glasgow as a lecturer in 1966. He was Senior Lecturer in 1972 and Reader in 1979, before he became a titular professor.

Hobsbaum is best remembered for the informal creative writing group he founded in Glasgow, the members of which met in local pubs and in his flat. Among those who benefited from encouragement and criticism at meetings of the group were Alasdair Gray, James Kelman and Jeff Torrington. With Willy Maley he set up the MLitt programme in Creative Writing at the University in 1995.

The Papers of Philip Hobsbaum are held by the University of Glasgow's Archive and Special Collections. The collection constitutes a range of material which documents Hobsbaum's activities and achievements in literature and education, including papers relating to the informal creative writing groups which Hobsbaum established while working in London, Belfast and Glasgow.